BLM spares Snake Valley in Nevada pipeline plan

The project, critics contend, should be rejected outright because of its far-sweeping environmental consequences, including those to Great Basin National Park.

“While further review of the environmental impact report is needed, the National Parks Conservation Association remains deeply concerned about potential dust bowl conditions created by the water mining project, which would spoil Great Basin National Park’s famed dark night skies, noted as the darkest in the lower 48 states,” said Lynn Davis, Nevada field office manager for the National Parks Conservation Association.

“The threats of this water mining project are far reaching: it could be built at anguishing public expense, could dry up the area and plunder Great Basin National Park, threaten the region’s rural life, and create health issues that would multiply economic and social losses.”

The water authority has been pursuing the groundwater development project as a way to stave off the effects of drought in what is the nation's most arid state in the country. Its pursuit of the project has reached a new level of determination and urgency in light of an over-appropriated Colorado River — which supplies 90 percent of the area's water needs — and a shrinking Lake Mead.

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